Nursing moms who travel through Penn Station — one of the busiest transportation hubs in the U.S. — now have their own private space, known as a lactation pod, to breastfeed or pump in the station. Located in the LIRR’s Customer Waiting Room on the main LIRR concourse, it's the first public lactation pod in the MTA system, and was installed this week near the start of 2019's National Breastfeeding Awareness Month.

This latest customer-facing initiative provides a private, enclosed room with comfortable benches, a fold-down table, an electrical outlet for plugging in a breast pump, and a door that can be locked for privacy. The pod is available for use 24 hours a day, seven days a week, upon request by the waiting room attendant.

The new lactation pod installation is the latest in a series of customer-friendly initiatives adopted by the LIRR within the last 14 months. Others are:

• LIRR Care, a program allowing those with special mobility needs to call ahead to receive personalized attention on trains, or to find assistance by walking up to our designated areas at terminals.

• LIRR Summer Saturdays, which allows monthly ticketholders to travel with up to four friends and family members at a rate of just $1 per person anywhere the LIRR goes.

• Pilot program for Help Points, a kiosk on station platforms with a highly visible strobe light that customers can use to alert crews of an incoming train that a customer needs special attention boarding a train.

•  org, a web tool optimized for smartphones that allows customers to find the real-time location of approaching trains on a map, refreshed every 3- to 5-seconds.

• My LIRR Loyalty, which gives LIRR monthly ticketholders special deals and discounts from merchants throughout the LIRR’s service region.